Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM Rodney Moore
Principal
Bill Gulgert Assistant Principal
Jodi Day Assistant Principal
Ed Chi 8th Grade Dean
Jennifer Brooks 7th Grade Dean
Jennifer Bantle 6th Grade Dean
GUIDANCE COUNSELORS 8th Grade
Jennifer Stuntz
7th Grade Amani Allen (A-C)
Jennifer Alberth (D-Z)
6th Grade Amani Allen (A-C)
Ashley Harper (D-Z)
Special Programs Amani Allen
6th Grade House Office: 703-957-4436
7th Grade House Office: 703-957-4437
8th Grade House Office: 703-957-4438
Address/Phone: 23415 Evergreen Ridge Dr.
Ashburn, VA 20148 Main Office: 703-957-4420
Absentee Line: 703-957-4422 Fax: 571-223-0585
Website:
www.lcps.org/shms
Principal’s Message
Stone Hill Middle School ―Student Achievement Is Our Top Priority‖
April 2011
STINGRAY SOURCE
Dear Stone Hill Families, Spring is here and the students are catching “spring fever.” As the school year passes, it becomes more challenging to keep the students focused. April marks the start of the final quarter of the school year. It will be a very busy time for staff members and students at Stone Hill. SOL testing is right around the corner and we are doing all we can to make sure our students are pre-pared for theses assessments. Until then, please make sure to strive for per-fect attendance. There is nothing that takes the place of students being in front of a teacher in the classroom. No amount of make-up work can prepare children the way face-to-face instruction does. Recently, I have noticed an increase in the amount of traffic during our after-noon dismissal. With this increase in traffic, I have also seen an increase in unsafe driving habits on and around our campus. Our Kiss-n-Ride area for student pick up is extremely busy in the afternoons and we have had several instances of unsafe driving endangering students, staff members, and other drivers. Please follow the rules of the Kiss-N-Ride by remaining in a single file line until your student reports to your vehicle. Also, please pull up as far as possible as this gives more parents the opportunity to pick up their students. Finally, please do not pick up your student in any undesignated area outside of the Kiss-N-Ride. If you are picking your child up before the end of the day, please do so before 3:00 pm. Once buses begin to pull into our lot (3:00 pm), vehicles should not be driven into the bus lot. Lastly, please obey the rules of the road as you approach or leave our building. I have seen several inci-dences of vehicles making turns in non-turning lanes and driving in excess of the posted speed limits. Unsafe driving in our school zone will be enforced by the Sheriff‟s Office. With the warmer weather upon us, it is easy for our students to forget appropri-ate dress for school. Clothing that exposes the midriff, chest, shoulders (spaghetti straps) is inappropriate for school. Also, dresses, skirts, and shorts that are too short can be a distraction in the learning environment. Clothing advertising inappropriate language, alcohol, drugs or gang activity is not per-mitted. Parents please have a conversation with your student about “dressing for success” at school and help us maintain a productive learn-ing environment. Thank you for your support. Sincerely,
Rodney Moore Rodney Moore, Principal
Counselor’s Corner!
Counselors Corner Believe it or not, the 3rd quarter has come to an end!!! Oh, how this year has flown by! At this point in the year, it is critical to take a look at your child‟s grades and progress to assess whether you need anything from the school in order to improve their performance. Make sure your child is bringing home their agenda each night along with their binders from that day‟s classes. Sit down with your child and go through the agenda to make sure they know what to do for homework that night. Sometimes kids need help in prioritiz-ing and organizing their time and assignments. Parents are perfect people to help them learn how to do that! Remember each teacher maintains a website, which can be helpful if you need to learn about upcom-ing tests and long term assignments. If you feel that a team conference is necessary, please contact your child‟s counselor to set that up: Amani Allen, 6th and 7th graders with the last names A-C Ashley Harper, 6th graders with the last names D-Z Jennifer Alberth, 7th graders with the last names D-Z Jennifer Stuntz, 8th graders 6th Grade It has been amazing to watch the growth, both physical and emotional, in our 6th graders this year. We are getting so close to the end of this school year, and continually we are impressed with their academics as well as social interactions. In March, Mrs. Harper and Mr. Allen visited Science classes to go over 6 year plans of studies with the students. 6 year plans are simply a map or snapshot to show students what COULD be their academic path. 6 year plans are fluid documents and can be changed at anytime, each year students will update their plans with their counselors. Each 6th grader will be bringing home their 6 year plans to share with parents. If at that time you have any questions or want to make changes, please feel free to contact Mrs. Harper or Mr. Allen. Keep in mind, these are not set in stone, they are just to show you the possible progression of courses. In April, Mrs. Harper and Mr. Allen will visit with resource classes to do some career exploration. 6th grad-ers will be introduced to the 16 career clusters and begin to use online assessment tools to explore their interests and abilities as they pertain to careers. All 6th graders had a successful and fun trip to the University of Maryland in March. The students were able to tour the campus and eat lunch in a dining hall, along side of real-life college students, it was a blast! The purpose of the trip was to expose all 6th graders to the world of college. Not all of our students will get to visit colleges on their own, so we want to ensure that each one of them has the opportunity to learn about and explore college! 7th Grade Mr. Allen and Mrs. Alberth are excited to welcome Mrs. Jennifer Brooks to the 7th grade dean position for the remainder of the school year! She has been a welcome addition to our team and has been working closely with counselors, teachers and students to ensure student success! Both Counselors, Mrs. Brooks, and our new assistant principal Mrs. Jodi Day, spoke with resource classes at the end of March to introduce Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Day, remind students of academic and behavioral expectations and answer any questions that students had. In April, the counselors will be speaking with students in resource to share information regarding high school program of studies, diploma requirements and their four year plan for high school. Students will then complete their four year plan of studies through an online program, Naviance. The four year plan of stud-ies is a guide for the students in helping them plan out their required courses for their high school di-ploma. Courses chosen for the plan of studies are not set in stone and can easily be changed from year to year.
Counselor’s Corner (continued) Additionally, the 7th grade counselors will continue to meet with small groups through the spring. Please contact your child's counselor if you are interested
having your child participate in a counseling group.
8th Grade During the Month of April, all 8th graders will go to the computer lab to receive a Career Guidance lesson from Mrs. Stuntz. We will explore different colleges and universities and what the requirements are for get-ting in to those schools. We will also explore the different majors that they offer at different colleges and universities. Mrs. Stuntz will also begin to sit down with each student at go over their 4 Year Plan for High School. This is essentially an outline of what their courses for the next four years could look like. Please keep in mind that this is just a template and that courses are subject to change. Please look for a printout to come
home over the next 6 weeks with their 4 year plan.
Parent Coffees: we would like to thank Margie Garhart-Lang from In Stepp Counseling Center for speak-ing with our parents on Fostering Resilience and Self Esteem in Adolescence, our parents were able to have some great discussion with her after her presentation
Monroe Technology Center Summer Camp
―Your Journey to the Future—Explore Career Pathways‖
MTC offers an awesome summer camp to middle school kids, where they participate in hands on explo-ration of a variety of careers. The dates are June 20-24 this year. Registration has already begun and space fills up fast! Please visit www.lcps.org/mtc to register.
LOUDOUN COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH STUDENT ASSISTANCE AND ASSESSMENT PRESENTS:
Evening Parent Seminars - 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. April 7, 2011 Parenting Teens in the 21st Century: Internet and cyber-bullying May 5, 2011 Moody Teens: What‟s typical? What‟s not? Loudoun County Mental Health Center 102 Heritage Way N.E. #302, Leesburg, VA 20175 703-771-5100
RSVP to Kim Hager LPC- Space is limited.
American with Disabilities Act
If due to disability, you need assistance to enable you to participate meaningfully in the activities at Stone Hill Middle School, please contact an administrator at 703-957-4420 at least five working days prior to the meeting or conference.
http://rallyforryan.wordpress.com
Entertainment, food, shopping and fun for the whole family. Special celebrity appearance by
featured on The Oprah Winfrey Network.Peter Walsh from “Enough Already!”
PLEASE JOIN US AND HELP US MAKE ADIFFERENCE IN THIS YOUNG MAN'S LIFE.
44078 CHELTENHAM CIRCLE IN ASHBURN
ASHBURN VILLAGE LAKESCOMMUNITY CENTER
8AM - 3PMAPRIL 9TH, 2011
ALL PROCEEDS WILLGO TOWARDS RYAN'SMEDICAL TREATMENT
ALL PROCEEDS WILLGO TOWARDS RYAN'SMEDICAL TREATMENT
Ryan Divin, om Ashburn,was brutally beaten in aparking l at college in 2009 and has been in a coma since. Ryan hasrecently been accepted into a into a state the arttechnology treatmentprogram for brain injuries - which isvery encouragingnews - but it is
remely pensive.PlPlease help thefamily give Ryanthis incredibleopportunity.
Family Event and Yard SaleFUNDRAISINGDecluer for the DivinsJOIN US FOR
Yearbooks Are Going Fast!
The last day to order yearbooks is April 7th. Order yours before it’s
too late! See the Stone Hill website for information on how to order a yearbook for your son or daughter.
Orders can also be placed at: www.yearbookordercenter.com use Order # 13630 Or call 1-866-287-3096
If you have questions about the yearbook please email either
Mrs. Blackburn ([email protected]) or
Mrs. Fitzgerald ([email protected])
Stone Hill Students Care!
In April, Stone Hill Students will be supporting Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.
To many people have been touched by cancer, either through their own personal battle or through someone they love. Every day, the American Cancer Society is involved in steps to prevent cancer or finding it at its earliest, most treatable stages. They assist families in finding the best resources to help their friend or loved one deal with a diagnosis and their journey to get well. The American Cancer Soci-ety is also rallying communities (like ours!) through events like Relay For Life, to fight back and find cures for this disease.
These kids have set out to help the American Cancer Society create a world
with less cancer and more birthdays!
What they will do April 5 - 15! 1. The students have created a poster campaign to educate others on the facts of different types of
cancers. Each day of the campaign will also include “color days” to draw attention to specific cancers.
4/5 Gold Childhood Cancer 4/12 Black Melanoma 4/6 Red Lymphoma 4/13 Orange Leukemia 4/7 Green Kidney Cancer 4/14 Pink Breast Cancer 4/8 Dk. Blue Colon Cancer 4/15 Purple Cancer Survival HOPE 4/11 White Lung Cancer 2. Students are volunteering to be part of a “Rent a Student” program offering help to teachers for a $5 donation. 3. Snacks and “Relay for Life “ HOPE wristbands will be sold before school to raise donation money. 4. Spare change collection jars will also be located in the Resource classrooms.
Robotics team member heading to St. Louis! Katherine Y. (8th grade) is a member of the Ashburn Robotics: N-Xtreme, a FIRST Lego League robot-ics team. Their team won the VA/DC FLL State Championship this past December and will be repre-senting Virginia and the District of Columbia at the FIRST robotics World Festival April 23-30th in St. Louis. They will be competing with 80 other teams from around the world. Good Luck, Katherine!
Stone Hill Odyssey of the Mind Team captures 2nd place and Judge’s praise!
Odyssey of the Mind Team A placed 2nd at the Regional Tournament held at Park View High on March 12th! The team met over several months to build a structure made of balsa wood that held 257 lbs. The team presented their solution during a skit. The team also participated in a Spontaneous event. Team A scored the highest points in the spontaneous activity among all other teams in the same category!
Congratulations to Team A members:
Jay G. Gautam N. Aneesh S. Shrey G. Raj S. Kaushik V. Anuraag Y.
Stone Hill student knows his places! Congratulations and best wishes to Jacob P. (Grade 7), the Stone Hill geography-bee champion, who quali-fied to participate in the Virginia Geographic Bee in Winchester on April 1st!
Stone Hill Student Spotlight!
Students of the Month— February 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade Alexis K Michelle A. Olivia R. Brice L. Roger L. Patrick D. Jordan P. Lauren K. Casey L. Andrew Z. Kaushik V. Kuljeet S. Sarah W. Oriana M. Rachel S. Hunter C. Caleb B. Anthony A.
Congratulations to you all!
Math Counts! Stone Hill places 3rd in State! Congratulations to Hariank M., Sudhamsh T., Puneeth U., and Shreyas G.! All four students were part of the Stone Hill Math Counts Team which competed in the state competition on March 19th in Richmond, Virginia. Stone Hill placed 3rd in the competition.
Creative Communication picks one of our own! Morsal M. (7th grade) wrote an essay that was picked to be included in the anthology entitled, Celebrating What Is Important to Me. Only the best essays are selected for this honor. Being published represents a lot of talent, hard work and dedication from the students. Congratulations, Morsal!
Stone Hill student receives nod from Brown University! Aneesh S. (7th grade) was admitted to Summer@Brown 2011, Brown University ‟s Pre-College Summer Program. Aneesh will join others from across the country and around the world to live and study on the Brown campus. Well done!
Drama Club
STONE HILL DRAMA PRESENTS
“THE BIG BAD MUSICAL”
We are putting the big bad Wolf on Trial!!
Don’t Miss the Shows! Performances will be in the Stone Hill Middle School Auditorium Friday, April 8 @ 7:00 p.m. Saturday, April 9 @ 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 9 @ 7:00 p.m.
Presale prices are $5.00 for the evening performances and $3.00 for the 2:00 pm performance.
***Prices are more at the door!
See the attached flyer for more ticket purchase information
MULTICULTURAL CLUB Join the Multicultural Club as we put together performance groups for the
2011 International Night. Students can join drumming or Indian dance groups.
Please see Ms. Harris or Mrs. Butka for permission slips. We meet on Wednesdays after school.
See attached flyer for information on the International Festival and Pot Luck
Fine Arts Night a huge Success!
This year‟s event was a cluster art show on March 24th that featured artwork from Creighton's Corner, Legacy, and Rosa Lee Carter Elementary Schools as well as Briar Woods High School.
The FACS department provided delicious treats and the music department provided acoustic performances throughout the evening!
The winners of the "Project Redesign Logo" were also announced!
This project challenged students to redesign the Global Tutors logo following design thinking principles taught to them in class. The winning logo will be used by the company, on their website and on all their official company letterhead. 1st place winner is Kylie C. (8th grade) - $100 gift card to Blick Art Materials 2nd place winner is Sam M. (8th grade) - $75 gift card to Blick Art Materials 3rd place winner is Jessie K. (8th grade) - $25 gift card to Blick Art Materials
STONE HILL DRAMA PRESENTS
“THE BIG BAD MUSICAL”
We are putting the big bad Wolf on Trial!!
Don’t Miss the Shows Dates & Times in the Stone Hill Middle School Auditorium
Friday, April 8 @ 7:00 p.m. Saturday, April 9 @ 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 9 @ 7:00 p.m.
Tickets will be available at:
1. The School Store from 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. from April 5-8th. 2. Send in your Order form with your payment and we will hold the Tickets @ the Door,
deadline Friday, April 8th. 3. Available at the Door starting @ 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 8th and Saturday, April 9 4. Available at the Door starting @ 1:00 p.m. for Saturday Matinee, April 9 5. Any questions send via email to [email protected] or [email protected]
6. Pizza, Drinks and Concessions will be sold at all shows.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions regarding this event, please email [email protected].
These are Pre-Sale Prices (Tickets cost more at the Door) WHICH SHOW DO YOU WANT TO SEE –
Please Indicate How many Tickets in each Box
For Friday, April 8 @
7:00 p.m.
Cost - $5.00
For Saturday,
April 9 @ 2:00 p.m.
Cost - $3.00
For Saturday,
April 9 @ 7:00 p.m
Cost - $5.00
QUANTITY TOTAL
Tickets
TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED
Please make the check out to
Stone Hill Middle School
Check#
The International Potluck & Festival has been a favorite event at Stone Hill. This celebration of our community will offer amazing food, stage performances,
storytelling, and a night filled with fun, laughter, and fellowship.
Stone Hill Middle School Needs You!
To make this year's International Festival a success, please consider helping out in one or more of the following areas:
Want to share your culture or another culture?
Sign-up to host a culture booth!
A "culture booth" will be an informational display of a specific culture or country. For example, it may include information on the following: name, maps, capital, government, money, holidays, famous people, national dress, artifacts, etc.
Interested in volunteering your time?
To have our best International Potluck & Festival ever, we need volunteers! Please consider helping out on the night of the event to make it a huge success.
Stone Hill's 3rd AnnualInternational Potluck & Festival
Celebrating Our Rich Diversity
April 29, 20116:30-9:00
If interested, please contact:
Gita Ruia
Email:
6th GRADE TEAM NEWS Team 6A—Dolphins, Team 6B—Barracudas, Team 6C—Piranhas
Science Sixth grade science students are beginning the Astronomy Unit where they will study the planets, our moon and the solar system.
Language Arts During the month of April, reading and writing poetry will be an important part of our Language Arts curricu-lum. The word study during the month of April will emphasize root words, prefixes and suffixes. Addition-ally, we will work on ways to expand our sentences using adverbs, better word choices and a variety of sentence constructions. As we prepare for our SOL, we will review many of the skills already addressed this year, such as analogies, figurative language, summarizing and various comprehension skills. The reading SOL is tentatively scheduled for Monday, May 16.
Social Studies Manifest Destiny! Sixth grade social studies classes are moving west. We are learning how our country went from 13 states to claiming all the land from sea to shining sea. Ask your child about it!
Math 6 Where did the 1st three quarters of the school year go? Are you ready for Spring Break (April 16-24)? We will be working on Area, Perimeter, Volume, Surface Area and 3D Nets before spring break and we will be having a quiz on all those topics. After the break we will be working on Probability and Statistics as well. SOL review and practice will begin in class. For additional SOL practice at home, have your stu-dents visit http://education.jlab.org/solquiz/. Have them choose the 40 questions and then select Math 6. Be sure to review the results with your student so you can know where you need to focus to prepare. As always, all students should remember to come to class prepared, complete all homework assignments and ask their math teacher if they need any help.
Math 7 Honors Well, we are in the last quarter of the year and it‟s hard to believe we have come so far. Fitting two years
of math into one year has been a challenge for everyone this year and I‟m
sure your children are excited for their Spring Break. As we enter into this
last quarter, it is especially important for the students to remain focused on
learning and up-to-date with notes and homework. During the month of
April students will be finishing up their Measurement and Geometry Unit and
enter into the Probability and Statistics Unit. These topics in the curriculum
are very important as they make up a big section of the Math 7 SOL. Some
important upcoming dates include: Unit 7 Test will be the week of April 4th,
Math 7 Honors Benchmark will be given the week of April 11th, and a Quiz
on Surface Area and Volume of 3-D objects will be the week of April 11th
7TH GRADE TEAM NEWS
Team 7A—Shrimp, Team 7B—Starfish, Team 7C—Sea Turtles
U.S. History The World War II writing projects are progressing nicely. Student‟s have been receiving extensive feed-back on their rough drafts to create, amazing finished products. The World War II writing project‟s final due date is April 13th for A day and April 14th for B day. Our next unit will focus on the Cold War, which in-cludes the study of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Language Arts It's SOL crunch time! The seventh grade language arts team is reviewing for the SOL! Through game shows, quizzing and team sports, we are brushing up on our fa-vorite topics and test-taking skills. Parents, please ask your children to give you exam-ples of hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia!
Science Students have completed the genetics unit and the project. We believe that they enjoyed the project as much as we enjoyed working with them. We began unit 7, Evolution, with an assignment pertaining to ad-aptations. As the unit progresses, students will study the fossil record, adaptation, mutation, and natural selection. Students are now working in unit 8-Classification. Ask them to share their acronym and the Kingdom for their seat.
Math 7 Can you believe we are almost done with the 3rd quarter? Over the last month, Math 7 students have been working on functions and transformations. We are excited to start our Measurement and Geometry section of the cur-riculum. This is a very important unit of Math 7 as it is covered heavily on the Math 7 SOL Test in May. During this unit, students will be classifying quadri-laterals based on their attributes, identifying polygons up to ten sides, writing proportions to express relationships between corresponding sides of similar figures, subdividing polygons into rectangles and right triangles to find perimeter and area, and also finding the surface area and volume of 3-D shapes. As mentioned in the previous newsletter, please help your child remember to come prepared to class with 2 sharpened pencils, a marking pen, homework, and their math binder. The Math 7 team would also like to announce that April 8th will be Mrs. Richards‟ last day in the classroom before she takes mater-nity leave.
8TH GRADE TEAM NEWS Team 8A—Penguins, Team 8B—Sea Lions, Team 8C—Sharks
English In April, English classes will be beginning poetry units as well as gearing up for the reading SOL. We will continue working on writing assignments and focus heavily on reading and comprehension. English classes will finish reading The Outsiders and begin studying Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. We are looking forward to a fun and productive fourth quarter!
Science In March, Science 8 students finished the physics portion of the year with heat and thermal energy. In April, students began chemistry with understanding atomic theory, structure, and the periodic table. Students will participate in several labs demonstrating chemical reactions and begin our units on reactions and acids and bases.
Civics Civics will be covering a mini-unit on Globalization and then will begin a major unit on economics. Students will also be working on the required community service project, the Stingray Salute 5K. Students will be sending letters out to local businesses asking for their sponsorship of this event.
Math In Math 8, the students are working hard on understanding and applying ge-ometry concepts. We have explored the Pythagorean Theorem and the mul-titude of angles that are formed when two parallel lines are cut by a transver-sal. In the next unit, we will continue with geometry concepts. The students will find the area, circumference, perimeter, volume and surface area of poly-gons and three dimensional figures. They will also perform transformations (reflection, rotation, translation) on figures in a coordinate plane.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Spanish I In Spanish I, we've finished up the community and the sports units. Since learning the verb 'ir' we can talk about the places we're going to go. We'll begin learning about families and celebrations in the coming weeks. We'll be learning a lot of new vocabulary so make sure to study each day!
Spanish II In Spanish II, students presented their vacation projects on March 18th. PALS (their speaking assessment) was March 22. We just began a unit on community service and helping others/the environment. Students will be able to talk about words related to recycling and volunteer work.
Latin I and II This month we will be reading (in Latin) about Quintus‟s birthday and the trouble he gets into with his new birthday present. Hint: it involves a discus and the statue of a famous athlete. During April Latin I students will be learning how to recognize and translate the dative case, the final case we have to learn this year. The dative case is what the Romans used to convey the idea of an indirect object. We will be reading a lot of sentences about people giving things or showing things to other people. Latin II students are learning demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. This material will keep them busy for the whole month.
German I and II German I will be learning all about helping out around the house using modal verbs German II will be describing a dream vacation in the conversational past.
French I and II
Having completed exciting video and PowerPoint projects that describes one‟s home and family members, French I students are now learning how to order food in restaurants. French II students continue to commu-nicate with their pen pals and are learning how to talk about cultural activities such as going to the movies, visiting museums and to going to the theater.
PE AND ALL THE NEWS THAT FIT TO PRINT
The following activities will be taking place in each grade level…
6th Grade: Volleyball
7th Grade: Basketball and Kickball
8th Grade: Basketball
Looking Ahead! June 9th will be our Annual Field Day! (June 10th rain date)
Stone Hill M.S. Stingray Bands A Virginia District 16 Superior Middle School Band Program
23415 Evergreen Ridge Road, Ashburn, VA 20148 703-957-4420 Brian D. Steffens, director E-mail: [email protected]
STINGRAY BAND (Band 8 + advanced Band7) Congratulations again on the award of a Virginia State Superior Rating at the District 16 Concert Band Stage Assessment on Saturday March 12. This is the highest honor that a Virginia public school concert band on the middle or high school level can achieve. Special kudos to our percussion section that two of the judges felt was one of the finest they have ever heard! You have proudly represented our band program, music program, school and community on a state level.
Speaking of our year-end plans, in addition to an after-school rehearsal on Wednesday March 30 we will also rehearse after school on April 7 and 27. If you have not done so already, please send in the permission forms and a deposit ($54.00) for the concert trip to attend the Hershey Music Festival that has been planned for Saturday June 4.
HILLTOP JAZZ ENSEMBLE At the time of this writing the group is putting the final touches on a first-run program at our school‟s 3rd Annual Fine Arts Night. Thank you to those students who have given so much of their afternoon free time to bring jazz back up on the Hill! We will take that program of selections with us to the Hershey Park Music Festival on Satur-day June 4. Students have received trip information and should have already sub-mitted permission forms and a $54.00 deposit. Our next rehearsal is Monday April 11 at 3:30pm. SOLO AND ENSEMBLE FESTIVAL . . . will again be held at Eagle Ridge MS this year on Saturday April 30. Final registration deadline occurred on March 25. If participating, you should be meeting with your piano accompanist (if preparing a solo) or your group (if preparing an ensemble piece). Please schedule a time before school or on a Tuesday or Friday afternoon to perform your piece for Mr. Steffens well in advance of Saturday April 30. BAND 6 will begin the first of four after-school rehearsals on Wednesday April 13 for the Green Band and Thursday April 14 for the Gold Band. Students are welcome to play in both bands for extra credit but must bring in a parent note of permission and attend all 8 rehearsals in order to be allowed to perform with both and re-
ceive the credit for doing so. BAND 7 will begin the first of four after-school rehearsals on Monday May 2.
Don‟t forget to mark your calendars for the Guitar 8 Concert!
April 14th Briar Woods High School 7:00 pm.
Keyboarding Keyboarding students have learned to key by touch all letters of the alphabet and punctuation marks. As we enter the fourth quarter, students will continue to work on speed and accuracy while maintaining proper techniques. Students are encouraged to practice at home to improve their skill! This month, students will learn to key symbols and numbers and learn correct format-ting for MLA Reports while continuing to work on proofreading skills.
Family and Consumer Science The 7th grade FACS department has been working very hard lately. We just covered the basics of laundry. The students created a laundry brochure that will be sure to help them get that laundry done at home! They also learned how to make homemade pizza! Remem-ber that the yeast is our leavening agent in the pizza dough...don't make your water to hot, or you'll kill the yeast! They also completed module rotation 2 and are getting ready to start rotation 3! Keep up the awesome work 7th graders!!!
Teen Living In March teen living students completed a unit about children! First, we studied the different types of development and different milestones that young children reach the first few years of life. Next, we learned about different ways to care for young infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. This information can be very useful to students who baby-sit children in the community or younger siblings at home. Students got to become the teacher and the young student in our Stone Hill Preschool! Students also completed the Baby Journal assignment showing their knowledge of various topics related to car-ing for children. Finally, we finished up the unit by learning more about several career opportunities that are available in the field of early childhood education.
Technology Education The 7th grade Technology Education classes have started the Lego Engineering Unit. In this unit students will study the building blocks of complex machines: Structures, Levers, Gears, and Pulleys; as well at motorized machines.
Yoga Club! New Spring Session! YOGA CLUB will begin a 6-week Spring session on April 27, 2011. The club will meet directly after school in the auxiliary gym and dismiss in time for you to catch the activity bus at 4:25 pm. Our instructor, Barbara Johnson, a.k.a. “Max‟s mom” will be back to help with our forward bends, balance poses, and breathing. So come join us on the mat! Make sure your child picks up a permission slip in their house office and brings it with them, signed, to the first meeting. Club sponsors: Michelle Sabol and Melissa Crissman
Namaste!
CHORUS District Choral Assessment Congratulations to the Stone Hill Singers and the Stone Hill Select Chorus for their performances at the District Choral Assessment. They both re-ceived an overall Excellent rating for their performances and a Superior rating for their sight reading. The 8th Grade Chorus (Stone Hill Singers) had the second highest overall score and did a great job! We'll work hard on implementing the suggestions by the judges in preparation for the Mu-sic Festival at Hershey Park in hopes of receiving a Superior rating for our final performance of the year! Thank you to all of the students and parents that volunteered at the event to help it run smoothly. There were many comments about how well organized it was and how smoothly it went. I could not have done any of it without your help!
Classic Cookie Fundraiser The Choral department raised about $3,800 from the Classic Cookie fundraiser, our best year yet! Thank you to everyone that participated and that helped to fill the orders when they were delivered. This money will help go toward the Chorus t-shirts, Hershey Park trip scholarships, Music, Water, etc. Your contribu-tions are greatly appreciated and I hope you enjoy the products you ordered as well.
All State Chorus
At the end of the month, Stone Hill will have 10 students traveling to Virginia Beach to participate in the Vir-ginia ACDA Middle School Honor Choir. We are very proud of this accomplishment and we hope they have a great time as they represent Stone Hill at this event. This is the most students that Stone Hill has had in this prestigious choir and we have the third highest amount of students from any school in the state. Keep up the great singing Stone Hill!
From the Library Shelf
Robin Klix-librarian
Mary Pellicano-librarian
National Library Week will be observed April 10-16; this year’s theme is “Create Your Own Story @ your
Library”. This observance was first celebrated in 1958 and is sponsored by the American Library Association
(ALA). This is a time to commemorate the contributions of every library—school, public, academic, and spe-
cial. This year, John Grisham has been named Honorary Chair of Nation Library Week. For more information
be sure to visit www.ala.org/@yourlibrary.
In conjunction with National Library Week, many school libraries will be observing School Library Media
Month during the entire month of April. This celebration was first observed in 1985 with the theme, “Where
Learning Never Ends: The School Library Media Center”.
Library Facts:
April 24, 1800: The Library of Congress was established.
The first circulating library was founded in 1731 by Ben Franklin. He wanted all people to “become
better acquainted with books”, even if they could not afford to buy them.
Ben Franklin credited libraries with making “common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most
gentlemen from other countries”.
April is National Turn off the TV and Read Month
Important Parent Information
regarding SOL assessments!
Standards of Learning (SOL) – Online Testing
For the past several years, most middle schools and high schools in Virginia have adminis-tered the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments online, rather than as paper-and-pencil tests. Online testing is now the preferred method to administer SOL assessments.
In Loudoun County Public Schools, SOL testing will occur from May 9
th through June 10
th,
with each school setting their own schedule within that period. During May/June 2011, all grade 6-8 students in Loudoun County Public Schools will be ad-ministered their SOL assessments as online tests, unless it would be in the student‟s best interest to instead take paper-and-pencil tests. The Virginia Department of Education has conducted numerous studies to ensure that the online tests are comparable to paper-and-pencil tests. That is, students would earn approxi-mately the same score, regardless of whether they took the test on a computer or with paper-and-pencil. Also, students will have a number of different training experiences prior to actu-ally taking an SOL test online. However, for students or parents who are uncomfortable with online SOL testing, a paper-and-pencil version of the tests will be made available. If you would like more information about online SOL testing, you can download to your home computer a “tutorial.” This is about a 10 minute “video,” with either accompanying sound or on-screen text, that provides an overview of online SOL testing in a variety of different sub-jects. From the Loudoun County Public Schools‟ Internet Home Page (www.lcps.org), follow the path:
Quick Links > Testing > SOL Online Testing
Stone Hill Middle School begins SOL assessments on
May 9th.
More specific testing information will be included in the May newsletter.
2010-2011 PTO Officers and Chairs
President: Sherri Diaz [email protected]
Vice President: Barb Frick
Treasurer: Tammy Swaim [email protected]
Secretary: Beth Barnes
Membership Chair: Claudia Fielding
6th Grade Parent Liaison: Gita Verma-Ruia
7th Grade Parent Liaison: Melania Kim
8th Grade Parent Liaison: Jessica Forde [email protected]
School Store Coordinator:
Sherri Diaz
Hospitality Chair: Karen Costa
[email protected] Margie Mamrol
Spirit Wear Coordinator: Cathy Fackler
Twitter Coordinator: Melania Kim
LEAP Representative: Karen Costa
April 2011
SHMSPTO Tweet ...Tweet! Follow us on Twitter!
Dates to Remember: ** (Indicates volunteers needed) April 4 Tuesday PTO meeting in the Library 6:30-7:30 May 2 Tuesday PTO meeting in the Library 6:30-7:30 June 3 Friday **8th Grade party at Lifetime Fitness
RE-THINK - RE-LINK Cut and paste sites below into tool bar now to register! Giant: giantfood.com – our stores, under A+, click „register your card‟ – 05524 Harris Teeter: harristeeter.com – together in education, click „link your school‟ --6711 Bloom: bloom.com - school code: 1728 Target Credit Card: target.com/tcoe Our code is 125653
Are you still COLLECTING BOX TOPS? Keep clip-ping Box Tops. They all add up to helping out our PTO! Call your grandmas and aunts and uncles and ask them to keep clipping! You can turn them into your house office
School Store is OPEN! The school store is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 8:00-8:30 a.m. for all of your supply needs. Many fun items, too! Look for new spirit wear coming soon...
Original Works Fundraising Projects have been sent home. Many students created art work that can be put on a variety of mediums that make great gifts and keepsakes! Any items or-dered will be ready and delivered to Stone Hill just in time for Mother's Day!
Thank you to all of the families who have supported the PTO this year by volunteering time, sponsoring a teacher, and supporting our fundraising ef-forts!
Stone Hill Middle School PTO
Cafeteria News
The Loudoun County Public Schools Secondary Lunch Menu is a three week repeating menu.
This menu, as well as the Secondary Breakfast Menu, may be viewed online at www.lcps.org by selecting lunch menus.
Remember. . .Eating healthy meals promotes children’s academic success!
January Hot Meal Menu Schedule
Week of April 4th Week 2
Week of April 11th Week 3
Week of April 18th Week 1
Week of April 25th Week 2
Week of May 2nd Week 3
The Nurse’s Nook
There have been a lot of students visiting the clinic lately for headache and upset stomach because they did not eat breakfast. If your child is running late and has missed eating breakfast, please make sure they grab a breakfast bar, piece of fruit, toast, etc. before they head out the door! Breakfast helps get them off to a good start for their school day! Thanks!
It is that time of year when parents will be requesting copies of physicals and im-munizations for summer daycare and camps. Parents should give 24 hours notice when requesting copies. We can not fax these records; we can make copies and send them home with the student, or the parent may pick them up.
-Carol Miller, R.N., School Nurse
Black Forest Productions present…
March 31st
7:30 PM
April 1st
7:30 PM
April 2nd
2:30 PM
April 2nd
7:30 PM BWHS Auditorium
Special Autograph Matinee!
April 2nd 2:30pm
Tickets sold at the door Tickets:
$7.00 for students $10.00 for adults
The Wizard of Oz
By Frank Baum
With music and lyrics of the MGM motion picture
score by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.
Turner Entertainment Co. - Tam Whitmark
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1
Last day of
3rd Quarter
2
3 4
Student
Holiday
5
6
7
Yearbook
Order
Deadline!
8
The Big Bad
Musical
7:00pm
9
The Big Bad
Musical
2:00 & 7:00
10 11
12
13
3rd Quarter
Report Cards
go home
14
Guitar 8
Concert
Briar Woods
7:00 pm
15
16
17 18
19 20 21
22 23
24 25
26 27 28
29
International
Pot Luck &
Festival
6:30-9:00pm
30
Solo &
Ensemble
Festival –
Eagle Ridge
MS
April 2011
No School
Spring Break—No School
American Cancer Society awareness campaign
American Cancer Society awareness campaign
